“Abby Lunardini, vice president of corporate communications at Virgin America, explained that the current guidelines require that an airline must test each version of a single device before it can be approved by the FAA. For example, if the airline wanted to get approval for the iPad, it would have to test the first iPad, iPad 2 and the new iPad, each on a separate flight, with no passengers on the plane.

“It would have to do the same for every version of the Kindle. It would have to do it for every different model of plane in its fleet. And American, JetBlue, United, Air Wisconsin, etc., would have to do the same thing.”

Bilton offered a reasonable solution to the time/cost problem: Each airline could offer up one plane, one day per month throughout testing and the bill would be sent to the device manufacturers that want devices approved — if you don’t pony up, your device doesn’t get tested. In any case, I look forward to not being scolded next time I forget the book I’m engrossed in needs to be shut off.

For example, O’Reilly recently conducted an ereader survey through its direct sales channel, and Wikert shared the results:

“So, what’s the primary ereading device used by these early adopters and techno-enthusiasts? Their iPads. That’s not shocking, but what’s interesting is how only 25% of respondents said the iPad is their primary device. A whopping 46% said their laptop or desktop computer was their primary ereading device.”

He also noted that among O’Reilly customers, the popular EPUB and Mobi formats were topped by PDF as the primary ereading format. This sort of information, Wikert argued, isn’t likely to be transparent when you’re relying on a third-party intermediary with an agenda. You can read his post here. And if you want more stats from the survey, Wikert tweeted them with the #ORMeStat hashtag.

One word for news: “Mobile”

The State of the News Media 2012, the annual report on American journalism from the Pew’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, was released this week.

Overall trends uncovered in the study include a lack of social media influence — “the notion that large percentages of Americans now get their news mainly from recommendations from friends does not hold up” — and highlight the fact that privacy concerns are becoming a major issue for news revenues:

“To survive, news must find a way to make its digital advertising more effective — and more lucrative — and the gathering of consumer data is probably the key. Yet news organizations also must worry about violating the trust of their audiences.”

Trends showed mobile is proving to be very important for news:

“… mobile news consumers are even more likely to turn to news organizations directly, through apps and home pages, rather than search or recommendations — strengthening the bond with traditional brands.”

Technology may be more foe than friend, however. Though the study found that mobile technology is giving news consumption a boost (27% of Americans now get news on mobile devices), a study of the money shows that tech companies may be edging out traditional news channels:

“In 2011, five technology giants generated 68% of all digital ad revenue, according to the market research firm eMarketer — and that does not include Amazon and Apple, which make their money from devices and downloads. By 2015, roughly one out of every five display ad dollars is expected to go to Facebook, according to the same source … ‘Our analysis suggests that news is becoming a more important and pervasive part of people’s lives,’ PEJ Director Tom Rosenstiel said. ‘But it remains unclear who will benefit economically from this growing appetite for news.'”